'Deep Impact' will hit its mark with audiences

• Published in: The Philadelphia tribune (1884) Vol. 114; no. 38
• Main Author: Mixon, Veronica
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia, Pa Philadelphia Tribune 12.05.1998
• Subjects: Entertainment; Freeman, Morgan; Leoni, Tea; Motion pictures
• ISSN: 0746-956X

"Deep Impact" has a texture layer of stories and attempts to actively involve you in the lives of several people in the story. This is the feminine touch of Mimi Leder, who broke into film last year with the terrific adventure, "The Peacemaker." Like that film, the heroine, Jenny Lerner (Leoni) is a researcher at a television network who wants to be an anchorwoman. When a top cabinet official (James Cromwell) serving under President Beck (Freeman) resigns, Jenny gets a curious tip and thinks it's a sordid sex scandal. However, the mysterious "Ellie" turns out to be E.L.E. or Extinction Level Event and Jenny has the biggest story of any journalist's career. Because a destructive comet is speeding toward earth, the president has assembled a team of astronauts -- including Ron Eldard, Blair Underwood and Robert Duvall -- to launch a ship into space rendezvous with the comet and blow it up before it gets too close to Earth. He also announces that there is a national lottery for ordinary citizens after a few chosen people and their families have been preselected. The lottery spins into another little story about Leo Biederman (Elijah Wood), a young student who first spotted the comet on a routine science field trip with his high school class. He's naturally selected for the lottery and he tries to save the girl that he loves (Leelee Sobieski), too.